Survey

A survey was developed to gain an understanding of the essential practices, training and experiences of urban forestry storm responders. The survey data formed the basis for creating the guide and subsequent planning materials and helped the team answer the questions:

What are the features of an “Urban Forestry Emergency Operations Planning Guide” that would be of value to the industry?

Be aware that infrequent storms may carry a heavy price tag. You never know when a seemingly small storm may escalate into a financial doomsday.

By industry, the majority of responders represented city government, public and local in scope, electric utilities, and private industry.

Storms

Wind events were responded to far more frequently than any other type of storm.

Reported responses per event in days ranged from1.6 to 43.71 days, with the longest response taking 790 days.

As a side note regarding storms

In a 2011 article called, “The Unsustainable Trend of Natural Hazard Losses in the United States,” Melanie Gall charted the monetary losses from natural hazards from 1960 to 2009 as being in the billions. Hurricanes were the costliest followed by flooding and coastal hazards, severe weather, geological, heat and drought, winter weather, wildfire, and landslides and avalanches.

See a sample chart below for an example of hazard losses by number of events as compared to the dollar cost. [4]

Reported Current State of Preparedness

Responders reported moderate to very good preparation for nine of the 16 options listed below. Those areas with less preparation include:

Community profile and hazard analysis.

Inventory of trees in a community.

Post-storm urban forest restoration planning.

Debris management plans.

A tool to estimate debris.

Debris removal contracts.

Debris disposal options.

Incident Command System (ICS)

Five questions were asked about the presence of ICS in an organization.

Findings: While ICS is in place within an organization, the reported results indicate that urban forestry is not part of the ICS structure and is not in place for a declared emergency in the urban forest. The training in ICS and participation on a team responses were nearly equal yes and no’s.

Partnerships

The survey indicated that electric utility companies, municipal government, and private and state organizations are the most important partnerships when planning, responding to and recovering from a storm.

What needs to be in place?

Respondents were asked to rank the importance of 16 items that could be in place during an emergency storm in the urban forest.

The six highest priorities identified in terms of importance are:

Safety protocols.

Adequate equipment to respond to a declared storm event.

Procedures for allocating resources (staff, supplies, etc.).

Key leadership and staff position descriptions and responsibilities.

Communication strategies for responding and sharing information.

Best practices for tree care prior to a storm.

The responses are charted below.

Based on the reported response storm response in the urban forest is a concern. While the data suggests a favorable picture of storm preparedness interviews painted a slightly different picture. A summary of the interview methodology, and conclusion follows.